Arne Slot insists he has no regrets over his handling of Mohamed Salah this season after the Liverpool forward confirmed he will leave at the end of the campaign.
Salah announced in a social media video last month that this would be his final season at Anfield, ending a glittering nine-year spell that included two Premier League titles and the 2019 Champions League.
The Egypt captain, third on Liverpool’s all-time scoring list with 255 goals, had earlier sparked controversy following a 3-3 draw with Leeds United in December, accusing the club of “throwing him under the bus” during a poor run of form.
He also revealed his relationship with Slot had deteriorated after being left out of the starting lineup for three consecutive matches against West Ham, Sunderland and Leeds.
Speaking ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final trip to Manchester City, Slot defended his approach and rejected suggestions that Salah’s decision to leave was solely down to that period.
“I look back at this season thinking that I made a few decisions that could have been better but I’m not talking about this specific thing with Mo,” Slot said.
“I don’t regret many things I did during a little longer than one-and-a-half years together. Again, the assumption that if he’s not playing that he wants to leave – that’s the assumption being made – then he would have left one-and-a-half years ago.
“I can remember West Ham away when he wasn’t playing (under Jurgen Klopp in 2024). I wasn’t there. He didn’t decide to leave. The assumption is that if you don’t play in these games and all of a sudden wants to leave, it is an assumption and maybe it is true or maybe it isn’t. But history has shown is that he did not do that previously and had a great season after that.
“When things like this are announced to the outside world, I don’t think it’s a surprise for you to hear that there are a lot of discussions, talks going on between him, his agent, the club, me and him, before this comes out in the public.
“But, as I always said, and I’m not going to change on what has been said between the two of us, or between him and the club, that is something I’m not going to share.
“If he wants to share his reasons why he did it then it’s up to him, but that’s not up to me to speak for him. I hear a lot being said about Liverpool and one of the funny things about Liverpool is that almost everything that is out there is not true.
“What I mean is I see sometimes that we are trying to sign players. I’m like, ‘what is everybody talking about? We’re not even considering the player or even talking about him at all?’ I think that’s a big, big compliment to the people who work here.
“Even when I signed, there were a lot of other names mentioned when I already knew I already signed. So that says something about Liverpool.”
Slot added: “So what appears to be true, especially in terms of Liverpool, is maybe not always true. I think Mo has earned the right completely to decide whenever he thinks he should leave. And he’s done so many things for this club. He has to make up his own mind and that’s what he did.
“After that incident you are referring to [at Leeds], which are incidents that happen everywhere around the world almost every day when it comes to football, you know what has happened afterwards? He went to the AFCON and when he was back at the AFCON, he played every single game.
“So that’s the answer to your question. The only one who can talk about it is Mo himself. So you are now making the assumption that he wants to leave because he was out for six days. But that doesn’t have to be true.
“I would be surprised if there’s not moment when Mo’s going to share his thoughts about why he made the decision he made. It’s not up to me to do that. It’s up to him. And I would not go into all these assumptions, and I would be, how do you say this in English? I would be careful with assumptions, yes.”
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